Not Quite The Same
by Lost Legendaerie
Summary: Life goes on after your childhood adventures, sometimes in directions you don't expect. Becoming close friends with a former rival seems to be part of May's latest experiences; but even thought they're both older now and on to more adult careers, some things have stayed the same... Post Johto, Contestshipping, Mild AU fixed!
1. Chapter 1

_EDIT: OH GOD I didn't realize I hadn't saved this the last time I wrote and whoops, posted the draft. I AM SO SORRY. Update coming soon._

_I promised everyone and no one a fic because the 13th was apparently Contestshipping Day and the barest concept of this popped in my head as I was driving our puppy home from the vet and I don't understand anything? Except how to play Sapphire, by god I have restarted that game at least twenty times I better know how to play it._

_I went ahead and let it grow the plot it wanted (fostered by the hilariously long headcanon I wrote on my Tumblr about Drew) since it's also a bit of a consolation prize on the off chance anyone was looking forward to my collab with SuicidalToeSocks. It is still a thing that's going to happen, but not for a while. We've both been super busy. Whoops._

-8-

"Oh my gosh, this is _so weird_."

Drew waved a hand in her general direction. "Just pick a starter all ready."

"Have you picked yet?"

"I turned on the game ten minutes ago, I'm halfway to, uh, _you_ by now. I picked Torchic."

May snuggled deeper into the battered couch. "Then I pick Mudkip!"

The boy across from her snickered as he kicked a pillow in her direction. "We both know you picked Torchic too, don't even bother lying."

"Oh, shut up." She didn't even try to kick the pillow back - it had landed far short of her, anyway, and she actually had picked Torchic. Besides, Drew's dorm couch was surprisingly comfortable.

Actually, a lot of things about the green haired boy were surprising, if she really thought about it. She'd made so many misconceptions about him back when she had first started coordinating. Back then, he was just a rival (and on many occasions a jerk) but now, her first semester at Lilycove University, he was one of her closer friends. They'd met in the hallway a few weeks in and she'd badgered him for his number and his dorm and his major because he seemed to know everything about her, like always.

Which was why, when he invited her over to his dorm to play old Pokémon video games, she hadn't thought twice about accepting. She hadn't seen him for a while, anyway; their careers had branched off in different areas and they'd drifted apart over the years.

It was nice to be around him again. At least to a degree.

"So, you mentioned something about special rules?" she queried as she headed off into the grass north of 'her' hometown. It was so surreal! Playing with a sprite modeled after her ten-year-old self! And Brendan was there too. _So weird_.

Drew coughed. "Oh, that's a thing I more do with the guys."

"You have guy friends?"

"Okay, so my roommate does it with his guy friends, details." He made another flippant gesture, somewhere around his hairline. She glanced up, disappointed if she'd missed one of his old classic 'hair flicks.'

"Well? What do they do?"

He chuckled, somewhat uncomfortably. "He tells me they play Strip Battles."

She couldn't help it - she giggled as she ordered her Torchic to Scratch the Poochyena. "Whaaaat?'

Drew laid the handheld game player beside his bean bag chair and looked unexpectedly embarrassed. "Okay, so like, the rules are that every time you lose a Pokémon battle, whether it's a trainer battle or a wild Pokemon, you have to take off an item of clothing."

"How do you know that no one else is lying? Is it, like, the honor system?"

"No, it's just harder to lie when you're completely smashed." Drew resumed his playing. "One of the boys once got naked in twenty minutes apparently, he kept using Splash. But, anyway, I know that'd be really awkward since I'm a guy and you're a girl," he muttered something under his breath quickly, "so don't worry about it, I can think of another penalty to make things more interesting."

"Yeah," she laughed nervously, "that'd be really weird..."

-8-

"How many Gyms have you defeated?"

Drew didn't protest when she bumped shoulders with him in the hallway on their way out of class. "I'm up to Winona. She shouldn't be too hard, my Mawile just learned Baton Pass so I should be able to sweep most of her team with him and my Flygon."

"Mawile?"

He flipped to the Pokemon screen and selected a black-and-tan creature with a set of massive jaws in the back of its head. May pushed into him harder.

"I knew I should have gone with Ruby instead of Sapphire. They're so cute!"

"If you wanna meet up when I'm done with class, I can trade you one. I'll have to beat her and then Fly back to Dewford to catch another one but it's not a big deal." He shrugged. "It'd be nice if you could trade me back a Sableye but aren't you still stuck on the first gym?"

"Hush," and she stuck out her tongue at him. "I'm actually training to take on-"

Wordlessly, he sidestepped and tugged her along with him; a glance to her right revealed she'd almost walked into a wall.

"Oops."

"Still as clueless as ever," he chided her, but not without a grin. "So, you free tonight around 5?"

"Sure! It's a date, then." Her step almost faltered; he gave her a curious look. She raised one hand disarmingly. "No hetero or anything like that."

Drew sighed and rolled his eyes. "You know that's not going to be a thing no matter how many times you say it."

She tried pushing him into the wall as they walked, but he was surprisingly steady on his feet.

"Says you! Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

"Just keep telling yourself that."

Outside the weather was quickly growing colder; Lilycove may have been a beachside town, but it was on the northern end of Hoenn region, and could get rather nippy supposedly. So far, though, it had stayed warm. It was currently clouding over, though, and if she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could almost taste rain on the breeze.

"Tonight, it will rain," she declared. Drew made a noise that might have been sarcastic, but he was too wrapped up in his game to formulate an actual reply. May glared at him. "Rude!"

"What? I watched the weather this morning - scattered showers blowing in this evening. What do you want, a ribbon?"

"You're mean." She sulked. "I never watch TV anymore. I'm too busy studying."

"Studying," he repeated, then looked up at the grey and blue patched sky. "Good for you."

He looked back down again, but as she stolwatched him from the corner of her eye as they parted ways, his smile lingered the rest his whole way home.

-8-

Her futon wasn't quite as soft and plush as his, but it had the benefit of not being covered with school books and clothes and other assorted crap; her roommate, a teal-haired girl named Lacey from Unova, was thankfully neat and even more thankfully seldom in the room.

The rain pattered against the glass of her partially opened window, and the cool clean scent make her want to nestle into his shoulder as he played his game. After a few more minutes, she saved her game and powered it down, then succumbed to her desires and flopped over.

He tensed for a moment - he had never been a touch-y, feel-y kind of person - but seemed to resign himself to their new positions and relaxed.

"No wonder you suck at this, you never actually play it." He made a scolding noise with his tongue, but shifted against the futon so she could snuggle closer.

"I have a social life, unlike _some_ people."

"Yeah, and I have fantastic grades and am on the doorsteps of the virtual Elite Four, unlike _some_ people."

She buried her nose in the tan-colored hood of his sweatshirt. "Such a nerd."

"Thank you."

Silence filled the room for a moment, the only sounds being the occasional muffled tap as Drew pressed various buttons and the afore-mentioned rain.

"Hey, Drew? Do you ever think about the old days?"

He chuckled. "What do you think I'm doing right now?"

"But playing a video game based on the stereotypical Trainer experience is nothing like what it was like to actually be on a journey with Pokemon! I mean, look at this thing, they still have Roxanne in a miniskirt."

"And you're actually competent at battling. Miraculous."

She growled and pushed away from him so she was lying on her side. It was much less comfortable, and he gave her a suspicious look when she laid her legs in his lap, but again he neglected to protest.

"It's still kinda fun," she amended, "I mean, their version of contests suck compared to the real thing, but I can literally bike across the whole region in less than ten minutes."

Drew's attention stayed focused on the small screen even as he conversed. "No Harley either."

"Harley gave you trouble?"

"Aside from dressing up like you and otherwise being Harley, no. But he gave _you_ trouble."

"Why would that bother you?"

Drew stopped playing and stared at her abruptly. "Can we not go into this today?"

"Go into what?" she asked, baffled, as she sat up and reclaimed her legs.

He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Don't play oblivious with me."

"Stop avoiding the question."

"You're serious, then?"

She snatched a pillow and swatted it at him. "Of course I am!"

May had hoped that her aggression might have taken some of the sudden seriousness off of his face, but it hadn't. He sighed like he was world weary and tormented, but this was Drew; impervious to all jabs and jibes, the armored perfect prince from her childhood. Nothing really ever bothered him.

"I had the worst crush on you when we were Coordinators, May," he said softly. She colored; his gentleness suddenly dropped away and he shrugged. "Don't look at me like that, if you really didn't notice it's because you weren't interested. It's not a big deal."

"I..."

She wanted to say she had no idea, but a quick reflection over some of their closer moments - his roses, his protectiveness, his teasing - made her want to sink into the furniture and disappear.

Everything made so much sense now.

"Stop." It was his turn to hit her with a pillow. "I didn't want to say anything because I knew you'd get all guilty and stuff. It's fine. Just drop it."

Drew refocused his attention on playing, but she couldn't dismiss it so easily. She felt guilty, and disappointed maybe? He was right, though; she'd never noticed it. Like she'd never noticed a lot of things.

Like how honestly pretty his eyes were, wow.

May stopped that train of thought as fast as she could, snatched up her game and resumed playing with fierce determination.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey look so sorry about the really messy first chapter, it's fixed now and you get an update too and that's great, everything's great but I actually have like six pages of homework to write by Wednesday so goodbye friends I am gone enjoy the Contestshipping rationalizations I left for you on the main page 3333_

_(reviews are always the best, oh my god you guys DO still care!)_

-8-

Drew'd already finished his first playthrough by the time they met up again. She'd spent a couple weeks avoiding him in person as best as she could while she processed these sudden feelings and then stashed them away in a box as nothing but an attraction of the moment.

She ran into him outside his dorm, with the head of a very familiar Pokemon pressed against his chest.

"Hey, Flygon!"

The huge ruby eyes snapped open, and Flygon raised its head out of it's Coordinator's grasp and gave a low, rough screech in greeting. May, having finished with her homework, flung her arms open wide and ran towards the Pokemon. Flygon met her in the middle, pressed its forehead against the chest and keened a happy greeting as Drew jogged up to rejoin them.

"Well, this is a pretty warm greeting for the Pokemon that kicked your Blaziken's butt so many times."

May stuck her tongue out at him, grateful that she'd decided to drop the weird feelings when he crossed his arms and smirked.

"I didn't know you still kept your Pokemon, Drew! Most of mine live at home with my Mom."

"I don't." His smirk faded. "I released all my Pokemon before I came here. Apparently they all stick together. Flygon was just telling me about how someone almost captured Masquerain, but Absol chased them away with Whirlwind."

May hugged Flygon a little tight, suddenly feeling really sorry for him. "Oh. Wow, that's really-"

Drew cut her off as he hugged Flygon's neck and slid his palms along the smooth green skin. "Don't. I said they're fine, didn't I?"

Flygon snorted and shook them both free, then nosed at Drew's feet with its muzzle. "Oh, yeah. Flygon wants to take me to see everybody."

"Cool."

May stood back as Drew hopped on, and both people shared an awkward sort of silence. Then Flygon stepped closer to May and knelt to the ground.

"Apparently you're invited, too."

May blushed. "Oh, no, I couldn't intrude like that, you haven't seen your Pokemon for a few months now, haven't you?"

Drew chuckled. "I said you were invited. But, if you have homework..."

She looked up just in time to see him withdraw his hand and watch her patiently. Then she looked back down to her sweatpants. Not exactly flying clothes, but...

"I'd love to come!"

She impressed him by hopping up with more speed than he had, then amused him by almost sliding off, and then Flygon rose into the air with a sudden jolt and a humming buzz from his wings. They rose high above the university, then as straight and swift as an arrow in the direction of Fortree.

May wrapped her arms around Drew's waist , her chin buried in his shoulder and enjoying how he blocked most of the wind so she could just enjoy the view. She could feel his muscles shift as he moved with his Pokemon - his balance was enviable.

To see what he'd do, she blew air into his ear. He gave a grumpy little yelp, then shot her a glare over his shoulder.

"Mind not pulling that until we're safely on the ground?"

"So I can do it all I want once we land?"

He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back ahead, just in time to shout a warning as something blue and happy-sounding smacked him in the face.

May recognised the antennae wrapped around Drew's face as Flygon started their descent. "Masquerain!"

It gave another shrill scree of glee and detatched itself long enough to fly in tight circles around her head. Drew translated with a grim, broken sort of smile.

"It's asking if you brought Beautifly."

"Oh."

Some of the happiness drained away after that, but it came back when Roserade sauntered up to them once they were on the ground and spent several minutes berating Drew for... something. Most of the evening was spent in such a fashion, then both humans piled back onto Flygon to fly home. Tomorrow was Sunday, and May still had a lot of homework due by then.

He dropped her off outside her room with a wink and then jetted back off before other students could crowd around his Pokemon. It left her with a weird sort of nervous energy that kept her up long into the night.

May spent most of those hours playing Pokemon Ruby some more (pretending it was for her quiz on Monday on history of the region and she was researching the Groudon/Kyogre mythos despite the fact she had actually seen both Pokemon firsthand) and trying to convince herself that all those fluttery feelings were just indigestion.

-8-

"I still can't see how you got through this game so quickly," she complained the next morning as she plucked another muffin from the plate in the middle of the floor.

"I told you. I'm a dedicated, talented individual and I know my type alignments perfectly. How did you ever manage to beat me? It must have been a fluke."

She kicked one leg up as she leaned even further off the futon, trying to reach the last blueberry muffin without actually getting up. "Yeah, it was a fluke. It was a fluke eight different times."

"Hey, that time in Pacifidlog was because my partner was a complete fool."

"Oh, I forgot about Pacifidlog! That makes nine."

Drew gave her a severe look over the top of his reading glasses. She rolled onto her back so her spine arched off the edge of the couch, then looked at him upside down.

"You look so _weird_ with glasses."

He rolled his eyes and slumped back against the cushion, opting to return to his reading rather than bother conversing with her again.

May ate her muffin in silence, then curled back up on the couch only to have Drew's hand connect with her forehead and push her back down.

"You had five muffins. If you don't work off that sugar now you're going to be pestering me all afternoon, and then late tonight you're going to call me again about how fat you feel and how you can't get any studying down. Do some sit ups."

"Whatever, Mom!"

His eyes flicked over to reguard her with minor distain, then back to his work. Annoyed, she did a handful of crunches to appease him and then just to spite him started ruffling his hair furiously with both hands.

"Oh my god, May, will you cut that out?"

He struggled to lean out of her reach, but she climbed halfway into his lap and fluffled harder. "No! If I can't get any work done, then neither can you! And then we'll both be up until 2 in the morning trying to get our homework done, and..."

She wasn't sure when their faces had gotten this close, but when she actually proccessed it there was a tense sort of suffocating silence over the room. Drew's eyes were wide and huge and so perfectly focused on her like there was nothing else in this world.

She felt distinctly light headed, and shifted a little, breaking eye contact but not the closeness. She huffed a sigh into his face.

He didn't so much as blink.

It was like there was some magic button she needed to press, like there was a spell over the room and she needed to break it, but what could it-

Oh god, they were having a moment. A big, capital letters and curly red font Moment. Oh, this was just the worst possible thing! Their friendship was going to be ruined! From now until forever, they would be doomed to an awkward unease of not actually touching and not actually complimenting the other and it was jsut terrible. Terrible! She didn't even have a girlfriend to go to about crushes if she let this develop.

She reared back as fast as she could, clapping her hands over her mouth. Drew blinked and seemed to come back to life, but his voice was still so soft and gentle and ooooooh no, this was not happening.

"May? Are you okay?"

"Peachy! Just peachy!" She squeaked and buried her face in her hands, feeling the heat of her red cheeks. "I'm just... like, hey, no hetero? Is that still a thing?"

Silence stretched on for several long moments, and when she finally looked up he had collapsed in a pile of glasses and textbooks.

"Arceus be damned, May, I thought you'd suddenly remembered an exam you had to study for. Geez, don't look so upset like that!"

She hit him, and he laughed, and it ended up being a good day. Aside from the sugar headache and the late night homework session and Drew being right about everything forever, again.

But still...


End file.
